Glimmer of hope for Alzheimer’s disease sufferers

Hope may be on its way for sufferers of Alzheimer’s Disease as the Griffith Health Institute seeks participants for new research.

The trials, which will take place at the new state-of-the-art Griffith Health Centre on the Gold Coast, are focussing on a drug which is primarily used to treat inflammatory conditions.

Progressive dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and related forms such as frontotemporal dementia and semantic dementia represents an enormous health problem in Australia and worldwide. Currently no approved medical therapies can prevent the long-term clinical deterioration caused by these conditions.

Now researcher Associate Professor Stephen Ralph and his team of clinical investigators is calling for participants aged 78 or older with Late Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, to take part in clinically approved trials with a drug called Entanercept (Enbrel).

Approved by the US Federal Drug Administration for many years as a therapy to treat diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, it has a well-characterised safety profile for these uses. Clinical studies in the US have shown that an Enbrel injection into the base of the neck provides marked and rapid improvements in the mental alertness and responses of dementia patients.

Associate Professor Ralph says he is excited by the potential that the trials represent.

“I am really confident, given the outcomes from this drug so far, that we will see very encouraging results in this particular group of people. The anecdotal evidence so far with Enbrel is extremely positive, with about 10-12 people in Australia showing noticeable improvements in their condition.”

The study will run for a three month period during which participants will receive between eight and twelve injections.

Leveraging the mass production benefit that MultiBrain® technology brings to neurohistology, NSA can accelerate the R&D preclinical and safety assessment processes many fold and perform them less expensively. This results in faster times for a potential drug to move from R&D to clinical trials and sooner for use in people.

Pittcon is an analytical conference, so naturally my talk will be about analytical chemistry and how analytical chemistry will become increasingly important in delivering healthcare solutions, not only for rich people, but also, hopefully, for poor people across the world.

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